Crossover November: The ‘Daredevil’ – ‘Agents of SHIELD’ dream lives on
Marvel has made sure to make one thing very clear with the entirety of their TV / film projects: Everything is connected. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking “The Avengers” or an episode of “Jessica Jones.” All of them technically exist in the same world.
However, to date the series’ shows on Netflix have existed in a little bit of an island. Why not utilize what’s out there more? We understand the idea of wanting to give each show your own identity, but you also want to take advantage of your brand and some of what you’re best known for. We could really do this about the entire Marvel TV universe (or at least the shows on ABC and the ones on Netflix), but for the sake of this article let’s focus primarily in on two: “Daredevil” and “Agents of SHIELD.” In some ways, they are the anchors of what their networks / providers are offering.
The case for a crossover – It is really easy to envision a mission in Hell’s Kitchen that requires Phil Coulson or Daisy Johnson to go in there and help out, just as we could end up seeing Matt Murdock take off somewhere outside of his jurisdiction and require some help. With Marvel behind both shows, there’s little reason to think that they wouldn’t want to do this if the right idea came along. We even think the producers would be doing for it on some sort of level. While “Agents of SHIELD” is not a Netflix exclusive, the service and ABC do seem to have a nice arrangement going judging from how early season 2 arrived on there earlier this year.
The case against it – ABC still would probably much rather find ways to connect “Agents of SHIELD” more to “Agent Carter,” or even the new Bobbi Morse – Lance Hunter spin-off if this materializes. For Netflix, it is more of a matter of real estate and storytelling. They are extremely serialized, so how do include SHIELD for just an episode or two to the point that it is okay if you don’t see them anymore. It would work better to have a crossover itself happen on “Agents of SHIELD,” but then another problem comes up: The action on “Daredevil” would never be allowed on most network TV. They would have to tone it down, and we’re not sure all parties involved are down for that.